education

• Cultural deprivation


  Deficiencies in home and family backgrounds, such as inadequate socialisation, inadequate language skills and inappropriate attitudes/values
• Bernstein's speech codes


  • Differences in speech codes put working-class children at a disadvantage because the elaborated code is used by teachers, textbooks and exams. Early socialisation into the elaborated code means that middle-class pupils are already at an advantage.
• Douglas' parents' education


  • Working-class parents place less value on education; they are less ambitious for their children and give them less encouragement to participate in educational activities, such as homework. As a result of this, many working-class parents do not attend parents evening.
• Sugarmann's working-class subcultures


  • Fatalism- there's nothing you can do to change your status
  • Collectivism - valuing being part of a group more than being an individual
  • Immediate gratification- seeking pleasure now rather than making sacrifices in order to get rewards in the future
  • Present time orientation- seeing the present as more important than the future, therefore having no long-term goals
• Material deprivation - housing

  • Overcrowding means there is no room for educational activities, such as homework and reading. It also means disturbed sleep from sharing bedrooms. Families living in temp accommodation may find themselves having to move frequently, leading to disturbed education. Overcrowded homes mean greater risk of accidents and a higher risk of getting ill. This may lead to absence from school.
• Material deprivation - diet and health


  • Young people from poorer homes have lower intakes of energy, vitamins and minerals. Poor nutrition affects health, for example, by weakening the child's immune system- this may result in more absences from school.
• Cultural capital


  Knowledge, language, attitudes and values, and lifestyle that gives the middle-class an inbuilt advantage in a middle-class controlled education system
• Bourdieu on cultural capital


  • Middle-class children with cultural capital are better equipped to meet the demands on the school curriculum. Parents can convert the cultural capital into economic capital, for example, they can send their children to private schools.
• Labelling


  Teachers judge and label pupils according to how closely they fit the "ideal pupil". This would therefore dampen the motivation of students who did not suit the ideal pupil, due to how teachers deferred their time away from them and were unwilling to help.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  When students are given a positive label, they react to it by creating a positive self-concept, which means they are motivated to work hard and improve their grades. This also works in reverse, with negative labels leading to negative self-concepts and less motivation.
• Rosenthal and Jacobson study


  • Researchers informed teachers of students who scored highly on an IQ test and would be a quick learner. The catch was that these test results were fabricated. Teachers treated those who were falsely identified as 'spurts' differently. 47% of those who were identified to 'spurt' had made significant improvement due to how teachers paid more attention to them by giving them more feedback.
• Streaming


  • Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers labelled working-class students as unintelligent, resulting in them being placed in lower streams and sets.
• Pupil subcultures - polarisation and differentiation


  • Polarisation is when pupils respond to streaming by either moving to a pro-school subculture or an anti-school subculture. Differentiation is a form of streaming, those who are placed in higher streams gain a higher status.
• Hargreaves on pupil subcultures


  • Boys in lower streams were triple failures: they failed their 11+ exam; had been placed in lower streams; and then labelled as "worthless louts"- their solution to this was to form a group which provided status to those who flouted the school rules and guaranteed their educational failure.
• Archer et al on pupil identities


  • Working-class pupils invest in 'nike' identities, leading to self-exclusion from education because it does not fit their identity and way of life; they see it as unrealistic (it is for richer and cleverer people) and they also see it as undesirable (it does not suit their habitus).
• Linguistic skills of minority ethnic groups

  • Some pupils speak a different language and some pupils speak an informal version of English. Bereiter and Engelmann state that the black Caribbean language is ungrammatical and disjointed, which means they cannot convey abstract ideas.
• Family structure of minority ethnic groups

  • There are higher rates of lone-parent families in black ethnicities. Moynihan found that many black families are headed by a lone mother, leading to lower achievement of black boys due to how they do not have a male role model.
• Attitudes and values of minority ethnic groups

  • Some sociologists argue that some black pupils have a fatalistic outlook on life, meaning they want immediate gratification and have limited motivation to achieve in the long term.
• Material deprivation of minority ethnic groups

  • Many minority ethnic groups are victims of racism in wider society, subsequently they face direct or indirect discrimination at work or in the housing market, and in turn, they may be in low paid jobs or unemployed. This impacts upon the children's educational opportunities.
• Labelling of black pupils

  • Gillborn and Youdell found that teachers had racialised expectations of black pupils and expected more discipline problems and saw their behaviour as threatening. Black pupils were more likely than others to be punished for the same behaviour as white pupils.
• Labelling of high achieving black girls

  • Fuller found that high achieving black girls maintained a positive self-image by rejecting teachers' stereotypes. They did not seek teacher approval, but valued education. Mirza found that black girls' strategies for dealing with teacher racism still disadvantaged them. For instance, they would not ask for help.
• Labelling of Asian pupils


  • Wright found that Asian primary school pupils were stereotyped and treated differently. Teachers used simple language because they assumed they would speak poor English and became frustrated when pupils pronounced their names incorrectly.
• Pupil subcultures of black boys

  • Sewell found that black boys developed a range of responses to teachers racist labelling: Conformists, Innovators, Retreatists, and Rebels.
• Ethnocentric curriculum


  • Troyna and Williams state that the British curriculum prioritises white culture and the English language, for example through holidays in line with the Christian calendar, and a focus on white leaders in History.
• Impact of feminism on girls' ambitions

  • McRobbie studied girls magazines and found that in the 1970s, they emphasised the importance of getting married. However, nowadays, they contain images of strong, assertive and independent women. Feminists have campaigned for women's rights and changes in the law (eg. equal rights).
• Changes in women's employment

  • Changes in the law have improved the position of working women, for example the Equal Pay Act (1970) and the Sex Discrimination Act (1975).
• Changing girls' ambitions


  • Sharpe interviewed girls and found that their ambitions in the 1970s were to marry and have children, and saw their future in terms of a domestic role. However, in the 1990s, the girls priorities had changed to careers and wanting to be independent.
• GCSE and coursework


  • Mitos and Brown found that girls do better than boys in coursework because they are more conscientious and better organised.
• Reasons for boys' underachievement

  • Feminisation of schooling
  • Decline in manual labour
  • 'Laddish' subcultures
• Sociologists


  Suggest reasons for the difference in gender subject choices and reflect on gendered identities
• Impact of feminism on girls


  • Emphasis on getting married in 1970s magazines
  • Images of strong, assertive and independent women nowadays
  • Feminists campaigning for women's rights and changes in the law
• Changes in women's employment

  • Equal Pay Act (1970)
  • Sex Discrimination Act (1975)
• Changing girls' ambitions


  • 1970s - marry and have children, domestic role
  • 1990s - careers and independence
• Girls' internal factors


  • Better at coursework due to conscientiousness and organisation
  • Gender gap in achievement increased with GCSE introduction
  • Equal opportunities policies and programmes
  • More female teachers and feminised learning environment
  • Teachers give girls more encouragement
• Boys' external factors


  • Parents spend less time reading to sons
  • Boys' leisure interests don't encourage language and communication skills
  • Decline in manual labour and 'male identity crisis'
• Boys' internal factors


  • Education 'feminised', no longer nurturing masculine traits
  • Disadvantaged by coursework
  • Lack of male primary school teachers
  • Peer pressure from 'laddish' subcultures
• Functionalism


  • Values education in providing necessary functions for society
  • Sees schools as meritocratic, with equal chances for all
• Marxism


  • Education system reproduces class inequality and legitimises it
  • Schools create new generations of workers to serve capitalism
  • Meritocracy is a myth, success based on class background
• Feminism


  • Liberal feminism - steady improvement in girls' experience and achievement
  • Radical feminism - education maintains gender inequality through gendered language, roles and stereotypes
• The New Right


  • Believe schools should be centred around competition and choice, through marketisation
  • State education has failed to create equal opportunity, private schools deliver higher quality